ALS Risk and Hair Loss in Men

[JohnnyRocket]

Well, I read the article as saying that severely bald men are extremely unlikely to ever get ALS, although they MAY be more likely than their less bald compadres. Oh, and the difference in likelihood is based on older men’s memories of their hairline at the age of 45. In short, I’m unimpressed with the quality of results as well as the impact on anyone. I've personally known two victims of ALS, and neither of them were bald....not that it matters.Additionally, this has nothing to do with BFS whatsoever. Focusing on every study that illustrates a possible link between an arbitrary factor and an unrelated disease really isn’t worth our time. Its certainly not worth my time.

 

[GlowGreen]

The first answer, that this is unrelated to BFS, is the best one but if that isn't sufficient, what matters here is the difference between absolute and relative risk. Using their figures, the risk for bald men is ~ 0.20% and for non-bald men ~0.07%.So it is troubling for bald men if we say "their risk is nearly 3 times higher" but less so if we say "it increases their risk by 0.13%". That is without even starting to offer any criticism of the study methodology (which wouldn't be difficult).It may be statistically significant in a large population but even then at the individual level being bald is a ridiculously weak indicator for ALS, as are fasciculations in isolation. The anxious twitchers would do well to note the lack of anxiety amongst bald men